Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau of Los Angeles celebrated a Mass of reparation at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, California, on February 3, a day after school officials discovered that the school had been ransacked and the tabernacle desecrated.

The priests of the parish also led a Eucharistic procession in the streets surrounding the school.

Pope Leo sent a message to the Latin-rite Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CBCI) as it held a one-day meeting on February 3.

Pope Leo “said the Latin Church in India is called to remain a living sign of Christian love,” according to the CBCI’s summary of the message. “Such love, he noted, breaks down barriers, brings people closer, unites strangers and reconciles enemies.”

In his homily at the annual meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington warned, “I fear we as a nation are experiencing a moment in which the order of nature is eclipsing the order of grace.”

“As a society we have allowed a Hobbesian conception of the world to dominate vital elements of our policymaking and public conversation,” Cardinal Robert McElroy preached on January 31. “Principles of human dignity and compassion are discarded in favor of a calculus that values the acquisition of wealth, military power and the stoking of racial, ethnic and economic divisions.”

“Solutions rooted in the order of grace cannot countenance the vilification of the undocumented or the indiscriminate deportation of millions of undocumented men and women and families who have lived productively and peacefully in our land for decades and who contribute to our society so many of the values that we are desperately in need of,” he continued.

The prelate added:

The order of grace cannot tolerate the richest nation in the world, decimating the less than one percent of our federal budget that our nation gives to international humanitarian aid ...

Even on the issue of abortion, this new rejection of the order of grace has brought us to a point where neither political party is willing to support critically important actions necessary to protect the unborn children of our country. And Jesus weeps.

Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, told the National Catholic Register that “contacts between the Society of Saint Pius X and the Holy See are ongoing, with the aim of avoiding rifts or unilateral solutions to the issues that have arisen.”

Bruni made his statement on February 3, the day after the Society announced its plans to ordain new bishops on July 1 without Vatican approval.

The New York Times has published a laudatory profile of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, who ministers in an overwhelmingly Muslim region of Africa’s most populous nation.

“For months the bishop has been trying to tone down the fiery talk from Washington and certain quarters of Nigeria of what they called a Christian genocide in the country,” the Times reported. “Rather, he and many other Nigerians say, it is a complicated cycle of violence in a nation of some 240 million people that is evenly split between Muslims and Christians, and is victimizing both communities.”

While the prelate sees “clear signs” of the persecution of Christians, “the bishop points out that the targets of violence in Nigeria are not just Christians,” the report continued.

The Times reported that Bishop Kukah was “relieved” that the December US strikes on Islamic State militants in Nigeria targeted the “criminals causing the real problems in Nigeria”: that is, the “Islamist extremists in their hide-outs.”

At a February 3 appellate hearing in the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” a defense attorney argued that four secret decrees issued by Pope Francis granted “surreal carte blanche” to prosecutors and that the decrees’ secrecy was reminiscent of a fascist state.

“According to the defendants, those papal decrees undermined the rule of law in the Vatican City state because they were tailored to the individuals involved in the London investment,” RNS reported. Defense attorneys also “reiterated long-standing objections that evidence collected during the investigation was not fully disclosed.”

The Vatican has announced that a commemorative medal for the first year of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate will go on sale on February 5.

The medal (image), the work of Amalia Mistichelli, recalls the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, with Christ Pantocrator in the background, and words from St. John’s Gospel inscribed in Latin: “You, Father, in me, and I in you, that the world may believe.”

Archbishop Diego Ravelli, the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, has announced Pope Leo’s calendar of celebrations through Easter.

The calendar includes five pastoral visits to parishes in the Diocese of Rome, the customary procession and Mass of Ash Wednesday, and a full schedule for Holy Week and Easter, including Holy Thursday evening Mass in the Lateran Basilica, after a hiatus under Pope Francis.

An Italian missionary bishop who ministers in the Central African Republic described Russia as a “very intrusive presence” there.

Coadjutor Bishop Aurelio Gazzera, OCD, of Bangassou told the Vatican newspaper that “Russia is a very intrusive presence, both politically, economically, and in terms of information. They are very skilled at managing and manipulating information.”

“Russian mercenaries took some young men, loaded them onto a helicopter, and took them to Bangui,” the nation’s capital, he added. “One of them was tortured, killed, and taken to the morgue still with his hands tied.”

The prelate also spoke about the “humanitarian situation in the Zémio area, with over 30,000 displaced people who need everything.”

In a pastoral letter ahead of the August general election, Zambia’s bishops warned that “our beloved nation stands at a crucial crossroad: will we move forward in building a society rooted in peace, justice, and unity—or allow ourselves to drift into division, indifference, and manipulation?”

“The Church is not and must never be a mouthpiece for any political party or candidate,” the bishops continued. “Our duty is to form consciences, promote the common good, and speak truth to power.”

The southern African nation of 12.4 million (map) is 87% Christian (44% Catholic), 10% ethnic religionist, and 2% Baháʼí.